Business Highlights
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AP: Catholic Church lobbied for taxpayer funds, got $1.4B
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Roman Catholic Church used a special and unprecedented exemption from federal rules to amass at least $1.4 billion in taxpayer-backed coronavirus aid. In totaling the church’s haul, The Associated Press also found tens of millions of dollars went to dioceses whose financial stress was due not simply to the pandemic but also to recent payouts to victims of clergy sex abuse. The Paycheck Protection Program the church tapped was intended to help small businesses and nonprofits pay workers amid a cratering economy. The church maximized its take after lobbying for an exemption that gave all religious groups preferential treatment. That helped make the Catholic Church among the biggest winners in the U.S. government’s pandemic relief efforts.
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Amazon says email to employees banning TikTok was a mistake
SEATTLE (AP) — Amazon said it mistakenly sent an email to employees Friday telling them to delete the popular video app TikTok from their phones. Amazon had told employees to delete the popular video app TikTok from phones on which they use Amazon email, citing security risks from the China-owned app. That would have escalated the stakes for TikTok, which has been subject to national-security and geopolitical concerns. Amazon is the second-largest U.S. private employer after Walmart, with with more than 840,000 employees worldwide. TikTok had said it did not understand Amazon’s concerns.
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‘A slap in the face:’ Goya faces boycott over Trump praise
NEW YORK (AP) — The CEO of Hispanic food company Goya is facing an uproar over his praise for President Donald Trump, with some Latino families purging their pantries of the products and scrambling to find alternatives to the beloved beans, seasoning and other products that have long been fixtures in their cooking. The controversy is drawing attention to the mixed political sentiments of Latinos in the U.S. With few other well-known Hispanic food brands in the market, it’s also unclear how effective the boycott will be.
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Electric vehicle startup Rivian gets $2.5B in added funding
DETROIT (AP) — Electric vehicle startup Rivian says it has raised another $2.5 billion in funding from accounts advised by investment firm T. Rowe Price. The company has a contract with Amazon to build 100,000 electric delivery vans starting next year at its factory, a former Mitsubishi plant in Normal, Illinois. Rivian also is rolling out a pickup truck and an SUV for sale to consumers next year.
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Wall Street rallies as optimism returns to cap erratic week
NEW YORK (AP) — Optimism returned to Wall Street on Friday, and stocks rallied to cap a shaky week dogged by worries that rising coronavirus counts may halt the economy’s recent upswing. The S&P 500 climbed 1%, and the biggest gains came from cruise ship operators, airlines, banks and other companies that most need the economy to continue to reopen and strengthen. After starting Friday with modest drops, stocks and Treasury yields erased their declines to drive higher. In a signal of rising expectations for the economy, the Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks rose more than the rest of the market, up 1.7%.
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US wholesale prices fell 0.2% in June as food costs plunged
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. wholesale prices fell 0.2% in June as food costs dropped sharply, offsetting a big increase in energy prices. The Labor Department said the drop in its Producer Price Index, which measures inflation pressures before they reach consumers, followed a 0.4% gain in May. Wholesale prices have fallen in four of the past five months. The country has been pushed into a deep recession which is expected to see the economy shrink in the April-June quarter by a record-shattering amount. That downturn, triggered by efforts to contan the coronavirus pandemic, is expected to keep inflation under control.
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EU says ‘significant divergences’ remain in Brexit talks
BRUSSELS (AP) — EU and U.K. negotiators have yet to find a way to overcome “significant divergences” in their attempt to seal a post-Brexit compromise. Following Britain’s departure from the European Union’s institutions on Jan. 31, the two sides are trying to secure a new trade deal before the end of the year, when Britain will effectively exit the EU’s tariff-free economic zone. Negotiations have proved to be difficult since the parties disagree on regulations for businesses and for the fishing industry, with the U.K. adamantly opposed to EU demands for long-term access to British waters.
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Amazon’s homeless shelter faces Seattle crisis, criticism
SEATTLE (AP) — A homeless shelter built on Amazon’s perfectly manicured urban Seattle campus is a major civic contribution that pushes the company to face the crisis and criticism in the hometown it has rapidly transformed. Believed to be the first homeless shelter built inside a corporate office building, Amazon’s partnership housing a local nonprofit could be seen as the company’s answer to criticism that it hasn’t given back enough to the city. But the Mary’s Place family homeless shelter also serves as a stark display of have-and-have-nots. Some blame Amazon’s explosive growth for making living in Seattle too costly.
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The S&P 500 rose 32.99 points, or 1.1%, to 3,185.04. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 369.21 points, or 1.4%, to 26,075.30. The Nasdaq composite added 69.69, or 0.7%, to 10,617.44. The Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks rose 23.76 points, or 1.7% to 1,422.68.